A lot has been said about Jayson Tatum's growth as a distributor. I broke down a particularly impressive passing display against the Sixers a month ago, and he continues to have moments where his manipulation of defenses stands out. His deepening bag of attacking softer defenses like Portland's highlights how far he's come and where he's going as a primary initiator.
"The process of how he played was great," Joe Mazzulla said after the win in Portland. "I thought he was just processing defense, coverages, matchups. ... He did a good job just taking what the defense gave him and then making adjustments along the way."
At his best, Tatum makes a defense pay regardless of the choice they make. Whether it's a switch, a double-team, or something else, Tatum is reading the game at a high level and making the right reads.
The first thing he's going to do in any game is attack the other team's bigs.
Donovan Clingan never had a chance in this game. Tatum and the Celtics attacked him right away and it didn't go well for him. You can see in Tatum's initial move here that he briefly thought about stepping back to take the 3, but his momentum was too far forward so he went with it. He easily could have gone to Sam Hauser in the corner, but he threaded the much more impressive bounce pass to Al Horford.
Getting into the paint and forcing defenders to step up, especially after he's dusted an opponent, opens up a number of options for him. Defenders have to step up to stop him because a minute prior to this play, Tatum roasted Clingan on a switch and no one was there to help.
This is where the creative use of guards in the dunker spot works for the Celtics. With Payton Pritchard in that spot on this play, there's no rim protection for the Blazers. Pritchard's defender is too small to challenge Tatum, so even if he tried (which he didn't) it wouldn't have gone well. The defender's only chance would have been to come over and clear the block/charge circle to try to draw the offensive foul, but guys in those spots aren't always great at that.
Even with their normal double-big lineups, a defender stepping up in that spot creates an easy drop off like the one we saw to Horford. The other option is drop coverage.
This is what Mazzulla is talking about when he says Tatum takes what the defense gives him. With Tatum such a threat to get to the basket, the Blazers went to drop coverage to try to prevent that. Drop might be a team's best chance against Tatum because a 1-7 shooting night from deep isn't out of the question. The problem, though, is that giving Tatum dare shots doesn't generally work out well. If he gets too many clean looks, he'll start getting hot and blowing kisses all over the arena.
Want to go to a zone?
Getting to the middle of a zone destroys it almost every time. That spot Tatum got to in the middle is where everyone's defensive responsibilities overlap. The kick to the corner for a 3 is going to be there almost every time.
So there's no other choice then but to double-team him, right?
First of all, this is a bad double team. Deni Avdija is out of control leaving Horford, so Clingan has no chance to switch out and challenge the shot. But beyond that, there is no hesitation by Tatum. He's making the read right away. And when the double team is better, he's very capable of calmly retreating, creating space, and then letting his teammates play with that advantage.
This is just incredible ball movement. One thing to notice is how comfortable Tatum is passing off the dribble with either hand. It doesn't always have to be a standard, two-hand pass. Tatum turned that corner and fired a one-handed lefty pass to Luke Kornet that gave Kornet the time to whip the pass to Payton Pritchard for the 3-pointer. Every fraction of a second matters, and Tatum being decisive and quick on plays like this just amplifies the advantage.
The Blazers basically tried everything they could to stop Tatum and nothing worked. He was in total control of this game, playing patiently to let things develop, but also decisively. February and March have shown us the absolute best basketball Tatum has ever played, and the best is still yet to come.
